Manfred J. von Vulte Calls for Education Reform in New Book

According to the Students First organization, 27 percent of 12th-graders in the United States scored below the “basic” level of reading on the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) test in 2009. Statistics such as this not only serve as a great point of distress for Deputy Headmaster and Author, Manfred J. von Vulte, but act as the inspiration for his new book, “Comic Books and Other Hooks: 21st Century Education” (published by AuthorHouse).

von Vulte, the Deputy Headmaster for Northmount School for Boys in Toronto, firmly believes that the education system in the United States and Canada has both caused and allowed students to become disenchanted with education. He blames this on a lack of innovation and the inability of schools to embrace traditional teaching methods.

von Vulte focuses primarily on comic books as a way to remedy the ailing education system. He criticizes video games for their artificiality, but feels that comic books can engage students while promoting literacy. In his book, von Vulte gives teachers and parents the tools they need to get their child interested in reading, and more importantly, interested in education.

“I want readers to become advocates for change in their schools,” von Vulte writes, “and revive some old tenets of education that were perhaps abandoned in favor of modern curriculum, which is frankly, not proving its mettle. I want readers to become excited about education again, and take some agency in it.”